pro Augustis

I searched "ahma" on the results page and saw an acceptance from 2/5/16, though I do obviously hope that Berkeley is not done admitting people.

Congratulations to whoever reported the Berkeley AHMA admit!

I have so far just had one Skype interview, but a friend presently in a PhD program advised me to go over my writing sample and statement of purpose beforehand, be ready to go into greater detail about anything I said, avoid generalities I couldn't substantiate if pressed, have specific answers for why I wanted to attend that particular place and work with that particular scholar, and so forth. I am bad at coming up with questions to ask at interviews, so for me the main thing I prepare is thinking of one or two things to ask the interviewers beforehand.

Nothing yet, though I'd quite like to. I turned down my first offer earlier today, which was a strange experience. Minnesota's masters program has some great faculty and (I can now personally attest) generous funding, but going for an MA when I had a PhD offer on the table seemed silly, and I didn't want to hold a spot that someone on the waitlist could use.

You're scheduling an interview. So long as you don't change it around on him ad nauseam, finding a time that works for you is exactly what the "when are you free?" conversation is for.

*gulp* It's weird: if I got rejections from everywhere I haven't heard from, it wouldn't be nice, but I could weather it with the good news I've gotten so far. But somehow that doesn't make me check my email any less frequently or less anxiously. I just want to know!

I don't see how an interview could be a bad thing: it clearly means that you are in at least some level of contention. Good luck with it! I wonder if the Classics department and AHMA operate on the same schedule... I know what you mean with the absences caused by interviews. It's great, don't get me wrong, but between them I will right now be missing two full weeks of class. In a fourteen week semester, that is rather a lot... Luckily my professors have been understanding so far.

Chapel Hill does not do interviews, though they do a recruitment weekend after acceptances have been sent out.

I can't talk about Notre Dame specifically. If they do formal interviews, though, you aren't beginning with a "no." Even if you aren't in yet, your Notre Dame application has been going as well as it possibly could to this point if you made the next stage, right? That's good news.

Congrats on both! I just got a Yale interview! It's been a fun three days. So far, I am amused to note that I have done an absolutely horrible job of predicting what schools I would get. I thought that, despite my genuine interest in the programs, I did a poor job articulating my fit at Chapel Hill and Yale and a very good one at Chicago. Yet no word from Chicago and good news from the other two, which makes me very glad that I sent the applications I was less confident on rather than chickening out and auto-rejecting myself. ETA: The Yale and Michigan interviews overlap by a day. This is not a problem I anticipated... Responded! Sorry, I meant to bring the Image of the Book syllabus to the library to scan this morning and grabbed a different syllabus instead. Keeping track of all the paper floating around on my desk is not my strength...

Congratulations indeed on making your first choice! I've never been to Chapel Hill and so definitely do plan on visiting. Their Classics with Historical Emphasis (sub-)program sounds great. Also, I have a story about my Chapel Hill app that I initially decided not to share because it was too embarrassing, but here we go: about a week ago, I got an email from one of the professors letting me know that I had submitted an application without a writing sample. I could have sworn I double-checked the application thrice, but apparently not. Needless to say, I sent the sample in immediately, but after that kind of blunder I pretty much wrote off my chances at Chapel Hill. Apparently, though, the late submission didn't matter much. So while this process is surely hyper-competitive, hopefully this is a tad reassuring to everyone stressing over the minute technicalities of their applications. Content does appear to be what matters here (at least at Chapel Hill).

This semester I am taking Latin Literature of the Empire (Survey) with Williams, Image of the Book in Roman Lit with Howley, Aristotle's Poetics (and Oedipus Rex) with Worman, and Egypt in the Classical World with Morris. We are only in the second week of our semester here, but each of those seems quite promising. I'd particularly recommend sitting in on Latin Literature of the Empire; my interests are historical, but Williams' every comment on Ovid (the first author we are reading) are absolutely fascinating.

Fair enough! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about Classics at Columbia; I am presently studying there for a post-bac.

Having you and the other veterans of the process around is much appreciated. It's good to hear from someone who has survived the process. I'm in a different department (applied straight Classics at UT Austin) but, for what it's worth, I received an invitation to the recruitment weekend and have not yet heard about admission. From my extremely unsystematic perspective, that seems somewhat common, as the same thing happened at Michigan. Chapel Hill, on the other hand, explicitly accepted me along with the invitation to the weekend, so it probably depends a lot on the school.

Professor Rives explicitly said that they were extending the offer "early," though I suppose that I don't know if that was early relative to other programs or to other applicants at this program. The recruitment weekend is not until March, though, so there definitely would still be time for them to notify people before then. ETA: Passing Shade, were you applying straight Classics at Toronto and Columbia? I wonder if the Classics department and the other affiliated ones (Classical Studies at Columbia and the Toronto Ancient History program with York) reply at the same time.

I just got accepted to Chapel Hill! If anyone else has applied there, though, I wouldn't lose hope just yet: the phrasing of the email seemed to indicate that they are not doing them all at once. Also: congratulations on Toronto and Duke, Passing Shade and $eptimius$severus!

I applied to Toronto and haven't heard anything yet—well, save the bizarre message about how it was best to apply to grad student housing before hearing anything about acceptance/rejection.

Those are indeed the dates. I'll see you there!

Over the past few days I have gotten invites to the UT Austin and IPGRH interview weekends! ciistai, when is your visit? I wonder if all of the classical something or other programs will go at the same time.

Roughly half of those I talked to grad school about gave the doom and gloom speech. One other didn't say it was horrible per se but did talk about the importance of both professionalization and being willing to find an alt career if necessary, while the last didn't mention it in any form.

I'm in NYC, so it wouldn't be that bad a trip. IPGRH will actually have an interview weekend, too: toward the end of the Skype interview, the interviewers mentioned that they would be meeting next week to discuss the interviews and that the next stage (for those who passed this one) would be an in-person meeting.

Congratulations! That is so interesting that the different programs at Michigan handle whether to do the interview over Skype or in person differently...

I think it's the opposite. You get an interview request if they are thinking of saying yes, if it is a school that does interviews. Why would they waste time interviewing people who have no chance?

I submitted on December third. The phrasing of the email, and the way that they offered a bunch of different interview slots, seemed to pretty heavily imply that this was sent to the present group of IPGRH folk* rather than one at a time. It was specifically addressed to IPGRH rather than all of the programs, though, so here's to you getting similar news in a few days! *Or at least the group of people that they want to interview first for whatever reason

I just got a (Skype) interview request from Michigan's Interdepartmental Program in Greek and Roman History! It's a nice note to start the responses on, even if it means that I should probably take down the Alexander the Great poster from my wall, lest it come off as a bizarre attempt at ingratiation.